Summary

Zoom Whiteboard is a collaboration tool that allows users to create online whiteboards that can be accessed wherever and whenever, both inside or outside of a Zoom meeting. On Zoom Whiteboard, users can share whiteboards to collaborate with anyone with a Zoom account. Zoom Whiteboard allows teams to brainstorm, plan and learn through the use of illustration, diagramming, and live collaboration tools that can be accessed on almost any device with the Zoom app.

In the essence of remote work and hybrid environments, Zoom Whiteboard should be accessible at all times, whether someone is working from home, in the office, or on the go. Zoom Whiteboard was brought to mobile devices to allow users to collaborate instantaneously and not to have them miss a thing while away from their workstation! 

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Duration

4 weeks

Problem

Users are limited to desktop devices or conference room appliances in order to collaborate or edit Zoom Whiteboards, which has contributed to low product engagement and monthly average use.

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Solution

Implement an optimized Zoom Whiteboard mobile experience so users can fully collaborate and edit whiteboards without needing a desktop device or conference room appliance.

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Approach

I partnered with my PM and engineering team to evaluate competitor products, and understand the constraints given a tight deadline. We planned by outlining:

✅ Jobs to be done- focusing on must-have product requirements that were feasible within our timeline, and coming to an agreement on requirements that could be postponed as a fast follow.

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🔎 Feature analysis of competitor products- understanding what our top competitors offer, what they are doing well and not well, and brainstorming where Zoom could have a competitive advantage.

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👥 User scenarios and their according flows- capturing the user's potential journey as they navigate through the product both inside and outside of a meeting.

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🧐 Robust discovery/design explorations- taking a paced approach and experimenting with low-fidelity designs, not jumping directly into polished solutions.
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Challenges

My team and I had data that validated that Zoom Whiteboard on mobile would help increase product engagement and usage, but there were many unknowns and limitations: 

✨ Unique experience- whiteboard products aren't typically auxiliary features to video conferencing services like Zoom Whiteboard. This was difficult to evaluate against competitors.

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💭 Assumptions based on limited qualitative research- no interviews or qualitative data were collected to better understand the needs of having Zoom Whiteboard on mobile. The only rationale used was through customer requests to enable editing capabilities.

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💻 Desktop first design- the product was optimized for larger screens and a mouse. I had to translate clicks to touch, and prioritize features that would work best on mobile.
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Design Hypothesis

By implementing an optimized Zoom Whiteboard mobile experience, which will allow users to fully collaborate and edit whiteboards both in and out of meetings, this will increase product engagement and monthly average use by giving users more flexibility on how and where they can use the product.

We will know this to be true when we see an increase in the monthly average use of whiteboard by the end of the quarter.

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Design Outcomes

Collaboration In-Meeting, Optimized Mobile UI

• Multi-task mode - Meeting participants can edit or view the whiteboard, and check on meeting participants when needed
• Information Architecture - Restructured how whiteboard information and tools are organized
• UI Design - Presenting tools in a digestible format while providing plenty of open canvas space
• Editing Live - Enabling users to be able to collaborate live in a meeting (was previously view-only)

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Translating Clicks to Touch, Asynchronous Collaboration

• Touch Gesture Specifications - Outlined the timing, conditions and calculations of how a user adds, edits, resizes, moves, deletes types of content (drawings, text, shapes, lines, images, comments)

• Focused editing - Provided viewport specifications to provide focused, single object editing.
• Intentional features - Enabled whiteboard features that work best on touch devices, such as drawing and commenting. Disabled features that did not work well on small screen spaces.
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Results

• Monthly average use of whiteboard increased after mobile was enabled
• Evaluating customer feedback post-launch for further improvements